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INTEREST: Hideaki Anno Details His Falling Out With Gainax


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jellybeanbandit



Joined: 18 Jun 2019
Posts: 107
PostPosted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 11:41 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Anno wrote that the misleading coverage of this news led some people to assume that it was Anno who was arrested. On top of this, misleading reports that refer to Gainax as simply the "Evangelion production company" in the headlines have damaged the Evangelion brand. In the days that followed, some business dealings with Evangelion even got retracted due to the misleading reports.


I wonder what Japan's defamation laws are like.
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AkumaChef



Joined: 10 Jan 2019
Posts: 821
PostPosted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 11:47 am Reply with quote
Absolutely fascinating. I've heard lots of rumors about the falling out but this is the first I've read it presented in an organized fashion.

Management screwing over the creative staff by making poor financial decisions? That's a tried and true story, though it's always a sad one. I don't call many things "wrong", but when a show becomes a phenomenon like Evangelion is it's downright wrong not to give the people who did all the real work a slice of the pie. There is no excuse for it whatsoever. They likely could have given all the creative staff massive royalties and STILL had millions upon millions to play with after doing so.

@jellybeanbandit
I think ANN had posted an article a few months back about the defamation issue.
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Lann



Joined: 12 Dec 2006
Posts: 268
PostPosted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 11:52 am Reply with quote
This is awful. I think its safe to say I'm boycotting buying anything from Gainax from now on. What the hell happened to the rights for Gunbuster and Nadia?? This is so sad. :'(
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v1cious



Joined: 31 Dec 2002
Posts: 6199
Location: Houston, TX
PostPosted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 11:55 am Reply with quote
Quote:
It would be hard to bring in a fresh vibe at the studio that made it in the past, there was another TV series being planned at Gainax at the time, and the younger generation of staff would continue to hold back on expressing themselves out of deference to me as their senior.


Gurren Lagann? Makes me wonder if these shady business practices are also what caused Imaishi to leave.
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CastMember1991



Joined: 06 Feb 2012
Posts: 857
PostPosted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 12:37 pm Reply with quote
I think that by next year, Gainax will be no more.
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Kicksville



Joined: 20 Nov 2010
Posts: 1168
PostPosted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 12:46 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Not only did Gainax not pay back the loan, they also sold off the rights for Gunbuster, Diebuster, and Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water, three works that Khara staff had been heavily involved in, without telling anyone at Khara.

I've been seeing elsewhere that this included FLCL - is that true? If so that would seem to mean that if Gainax had kept their word, Progressive and Alternative probably wouldn't have happened...?
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Banjo



Joined: 13 Dec 2010
Posts: 779
PostPosted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 12:47 pm Reply with quote
I bet every studio has similar stories..
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Hoppy800



Joined: 09 Aug 2013
Posts: 3331
PostPosted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 12:49 pm Reply with quote
Lann wrote:
This is awful. I think its safe to say I'm boycotting buying anything from Gainax from now on. What the hell happened to the rights for Gunbuster and Nadia?? This is so sad. :'(


Gainax has the rights to those. Gainax is mismanaged to the max and looks like it has been this way for two decades. How Gainax isn't out of business is beyond me?

Note: I wonder if Gainax is the reason Princess Maker 4 never got localized while the others did (they did develop the game after all).
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Frog-kun
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 10 Jun 2017
Posts: 118
PostPosted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 1:36 pm Reply with quote
Kicksville wrote:
Quote:
Not only did Gainax not pay back the loan, they also sold off the rights for Gunbuster, Diebuster, and Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water, three works that Khara staff had been heavily involved in, without telling anyone at Khara.

I've been seeing elsewhere that this included FLCL - is that true? If so that would seem to mean that if Gainax had kept their word, Progressive and Alternative probably wouldn't have happened...?


I looked back on the article and yeah FLCL was one of the titles mentioned. I went back and changed the article to reflect that.
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AkumaChef



Joined: 10 Jan 2019
Posts: 821
PostPosted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 1:45 pm Reply with quote
Lann wrote:
This is awful. I think its safe to say I'm boycotting buying anything from Gainax from now on. What the hell happened to the rights for Gunbuster and Nadia?? This is so sad. :'(


It sounds like Gainax had angry creditors banging on their doors so they got desperate and started selling all their IP. It's an act of desperation--the business equivalent of burning your furniture to heat your home.

I'm kind of surprised to hear about their financial problems before Evangelion though. I don't know much about the success of Gunbuster back then, but my understanding is that Nadia was extremely popular and influential when it came out. I'm surprised they didn't make good money from it. (or perhaps they did, but their costs were out of control?)


Last edited by AkumaChef on Mon Dec 30, 2019 1:47 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4410
PostPosted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 1:46 pm Reply with quote
Hoppy800 wrote:
Lann wrote:
This is awful. I think its safe to say I'm boycotting buying anything from Gainax from now on. What the hell happened to the rights for Gunbuster and Nadia?? This is so sad. :'(


Gainax has the rights to those. Gainax is mismanaged to the max and looks like it has been this way for two decades. How Gainax isn't out of business is beyond me?


Note: I wonder if Gainax is the reason Princess Maker 4 never got localized while the others did (they did develop the game after all).


Going from the article, the answer would be a combination of years of Eva merch, and not paying what it owed. But yeah, you'd think that word would have gotten around that Gainax was basically a deadbeat.

I suppose some of it is people not wanting to speak ill of former colleagues. It sounds like Anno played along until certain points where Gainax essentially forced him to take action. Plus, there were probably investors hoping they might be lucky enough to get in on the next Eva. The only thing I can think of that would have been similar afterwards would be Gurenn Lagann, but I can't imagine that was nearly as profitable as Eva. Although, it sounds like eventually people probably figured out that wasn't going to happen since they had to turn to Anno for a loan.


I have to give Anno credit. He at least took some steps to protect himself to some degree, like taking a closer look into the finances when he was asked to basically be the name they used to procure funding or getting the merch rights to Eva when Gainax came asking for another favor.


Last edited by Greed1914 on Mon Dec 30, 2019 1:54 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Panino Manino



Joined: 28 Jan 2018
Posts: 734
PostPosted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 1:50 pm Reply with quote
Kicksville wrote:
Quote:
Not only did Gainax not pay back the loan, they also sold off the rights for Gunbuster, Diebuster, and Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water, three works that Khara staff had been heavily involved in, without telling anyone at Khara.

I've been seeing elsewhere that this included FLCL - is that true? If so that would seem to mean that if Gainax had kept their word, Progressive and Alternative probably wouldn't have happened...?


So that's how Production IG was able to buy the IP.
Tsurumaki didn't wanted a sequel. Yamaga wanting the money probably got tired of wanting for him to change his mind and just gave the IP away for some cash.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bdiICLSfVo
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CastMember1991



Joined: 06 Feb 2012
Posts: 857
PostPosted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 2:12 pm Reply with quote
Panino Manino wrote:
Kicksville wrote:
Quote:
Not only did Gainax not pay back the loan, they also sold off the rights for Gunbuster, Diebuster, and Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water, three works that Khara staff had been heavily involved in, without telling anyone at Khara.

I've been seeing elsewhere that this included FLCL - is that true? If so that would seem to mean that if Gainax had kept their word, Progressive and Alternative probably wouldn't have happened...?


So that's how Production IG was able to buy the IP.
Tsurumaki didn't wanted a sequel. Yamaga wanting the money probably got tired of wanting for him to change his mind and just gave the IP away for some cash.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bdiICLSfVo


Yep... they're pretty much done.
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Ashabel



Joined: 16 Feb 2010
Posts: 350
PostPosted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 2:15 pm Reply with quote
Hoppy800 wrote:
Gainax has the rights to those. Gainax is mismanaged to the max and looks like it has been this way for two decades. How Gainax isn't out of business is beyond me?

Note: I wonder if Gainax is the reason Princess Maker 4 never got localized while the others did (they did develop the game after all).


They do not. The article is less accusatory than the reality is, but Anno's "friends" have committed outright property right by transferring all the rights to various franchises to shell companies and running, with Gainax left behind as an empty shell so that even if Anno wins the lawsuit, he receives nothing because the company no longer has anything in it.

The rights to Gunbuster and Wings of Honneamise, as well as presumably other older Gainax properties, have all been transferred to Gaina (formerly Fukushima Gainax). This is the studio Yanaga has moved to, and he has already announced sequels to Wings of Honneamise and Gunbuster while he's at it.

The rights to Panty & Stocking have been transferred to Gainax West in order to escape the chance of being sued by Hiroyuki Imaishi after they sabotaged his attempts to produce the second season. They did announce a new PSwG project back in 2016, but in reality are just sitting on the rights so they can peddle keychains and hug pillows.

The rights to FLCL have been outright sold off to Production IG.

Fukushima Gainax is especially scummy because they created that shell company under the claim of rejuvenating the Fukushima region by founding an animation museum in it so they could attract tourists, but then abandoned the museum under yet another shell company so they could move back to Tokyo and restart work as an animation studio.
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Swissman



Joined: 11 May 2006
Posts: 766
Location: Switzerland
PostPosted: Mon Dec 30, 2019 2:29 pm Reply with quote
AkumaChef wrote:
I'm kind of surprised to hear about their financial problems before Evangelion though. I don't know much about the success of Gunbuster back then, but my understanding is that Nadia was extremely popular and influential when it came out. I'm surprised they didn't make good money from it. (or perhaps they did, but their costs were out of control?)

I think it's because Gainax was only the animation studio with the main creative staff (director, episode director, character designer...) being responsible for the animation production alongside Group Tac and Korad (from Korea), but the royalties actually belong to the true owners, which would be the producers NHK, Sougo Vision and Toho.
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